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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Since first posting my 15 Roundtable implementation recommendations some of my colleagues have asked me questions about them. The two most frequently asked questions are: 1) “To what extent do your 15 recommendations address the five significant issues or themes (space, scholarship, teaching modalities, graduate education and curriculum)?” and 2) “Are your 15 recommendations ranked according to their importance or urgency?” These questions have inspired me to provide a “Matrix of Significance and Agreement” and I provide its image above. I constructed the Matrix by assigning the five issues on one axis and my 15 recommendations on the other, after which I symbolized the importance of their relationship if implemented as Significant (S) or Moderate (M). The predominance of the “S” symbol on the Matrix reveals that each recommendation on this short list of 15 is indeed Significant. Letter symbols (ABCDE) on the Matrix represent the five issues and number symbols (1- 15), my recommendations. I have rearranged the 15 recommendations on the Matrix to reflect what I now perceive of as an “urgency” ranking. I invite further discussion. Email me at David.Nemeth@utoledo.edu if you like, or phone 4049.

1 Transform the main campus to a 12/7/365 activity schedule2 Emphatically commit to excellence in education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels3 Hire more tenure-track professors4 End “Open Admissions” at UT as this policy is incompatible with A&S College “top tier” ranking aspirations5 Abolish the administrative position of “Chair of Department” in the A&S College and replace it with “Head of Department;” the Department Personnel Committees will evaluate and reward the performance of their Department Heads in teaching, research and service using the annual ARPA and merit processes6 Return the Center for Teaching Excellence to its original mission and administrative structure7 Increase campus-wide support of sabbaticals for teaching as well as research8 Immediately commence a nation-wide search for a new Dean of Arts & Sciences9 Reopen our Faculty Club to again serve the main campus academic community as the physical and symbolic intellectual center of their informal educational activities10 Design and build several “nationality” classrooms (see, for example, “Cathedral of Learning” nationality classrooms at University of Pittsburg)11 Allocate A&S College space at all scales intelligently toward the constant enhancement of its teaching, research and service excellence12 Allocate additional and sufficient resources to Carlson Library staffing, and to book purchases and on-site accessibility to hard-copy books, with emphasis on holdings in the liberal arts13 Strengthen commitment to shared governance and faculty control of the curriculum14 Revisit the UT “Directions” strategic planning document and especially aspects of educational planning that impact negatively on the A&S College and its traditional liberal arts curriculum15 Assess the costs and benefits, as well as the ethical aspects, of expensive new classroom teaching and learning technologies (given multiple scenarios of instructional needs and priorities across a faculty-controlled A&S College curriculum)

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Five draft issue-oriented Roundtable Implementation reports (“Thematic Reports”) are now being redrafted by five implementation task force group leaders. These latest drafts will be synthesized into a single draft report. The full Roundtable Implementation Committee will again convene (on December 2) to discuss the single draft report.

The overall objective of a final Roundtable Implementation Report is to recommend "action items" that when approved will function to “raise UT to a first-tier level” and thereby “raise the profile, stature and visibility” of the College of Arts and Sciences as the vital “hub” of UT academic activities.

I recommend to you below my personal list of fifteen action items. As faculty members in the A&S College we are each qualified to participate actively in the Roundtable implementation exercise by presenting and promoting our own list of recommendations. I feel qualified to do so because of knowledge and insights gained while participating in Roundtable Implementation Committee activities after September 29, 2009: I served on two of the five “discussion and writing” teams listed above (“scholarship” and “teaching” modalities”) and also participated in two meetings of the full Roundtable Implementation Committee. In addition, I have long-term research interests in higher education trends. I have studied widely and in depth on the complex challenges, transformations and opportunities taking place in state public institutions of higher education, in Arts & Science colleges, and in liberal arts education. My historical perspective on the advent of the Roundtable initiative at the University of Toledo has been shaped by both objective and personal observations and experiences during 20 years of educational service on this campus. I have also acquired classroom experience as teaching assistant, part-time teacher, lecturer, and “full-time visiting professor” in public and private colleges and universities in three different states, in addition to five years teaching experience overseas. I have also taught a college-level course in a prison classroom.

I am now dedicated to my chosen career of teaching, research and service as a senior faculty member of the Arts and Sciences College of the University of Toledo, and to promoting academic excellence across this campus. Here is my list of recommended implementation “action items” in response to the Roundtable challenge:

1 Transform the main campus to a 12/7/365 activity schedule 2 Emphatically commit to excellence in education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels 3 Hire more tenure-track professors4 End “Open Admissions” at UT as this policy is incompatible with A&S College “top tier” ranking aspirations5 Abolish the administrative position of “Chair of Department” in the A&S College and replace it with “Head of Department;” the Department Personnel Committees will evaluate and reward the performance of their Department Heads in teaching, research and service using the annual ARPA and merit processes6 Return the Center for Teaching Excellence to its original mission and administrative structure7 Increase campus-wide support of sabbaticals for teaching as well as research8 Immediately commence a nation-wide search for a new Dean of Arts & Sciences9 Reopen our Faculty Club to again serve the main campus academic community as the physical and symbolic intellectual center of their informal educational activities10 Design and build several “nationality” classrooms (see, for example, “Cathedral of Learning” nationality classrooms at University of Pittsburg)11 Allocate A&S College space at all scales intelligently toward the constant enhancement of its teaching, research and service excellence12 Allocate additional and sufficient resources to Carlson Library staffing, and to book purchases and on-site accessibility to hard-copy books, with emphasis on holdings in the liberal arts13 Strengthen commitment to shared governance and faculty control of the curriculum14 Revisit the UT “Directions” strategic planning document and especially aspects of educational planning that impact negatively on the A&S College and its traditional liberal arts curriculum15 Assess the costs and benefits, as well as the ethical aspects, of expensive new classroom teaching and learning technologies (given multiple scenarios of instructional needs and priorities across a faculty-controlled A&S College curriculum)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

According to reports the meeting was a fairly calm exchange of ideas about such items as the Confucius Institute and assessment of big shots. Dr. Tinkle is very much in favor of our assessment of the cast of characters that runs this institution. It is my understanding that a suggestion was made that the Council assess our new permanent, stay here forever dean. While some demured saying she would only be with us for another year, Dr. Tinkle doesn't believe that for a second. In fact he clasifies it under wishful thinking. That said, there really are two important reasons for assessing her nibs.

1. It is a real move toward faculty governance. If the Council can establish a schedule for evaluating the dean, then over time instead of arguing about it, it just happens. It becomes a part of the landscape. Any new candidates for the position can be notified that this happens every two years. Live with it.

2. The data will belong to the Council. This will not be something that the administration will have a hand in. They can't grab it and refuse to show it to anybody.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

By now most of you have been able to read the Provost's effusive letter praising our present interim (sorry) permanent dean. While the letter explains she probably won't stay past next year there are no promises to that effect. There is likewise no promise of an actual search for a dean. Given the tone of the letter, I would not hold my breath waiting for a search. Also given the tone of the letter, one might think that on the eigth day Dr. McClelland created the college of Arts and Sciences as well as a global economy. This is difficult for us mere mortals to actually determine because we never really get to evaluate the gods. Dr. White has provided an excellent critique of the letter and I would ask all to thoroughly read it. Just one last point before I depart. What exactly got put on hold because her title was interim? What has not taken place (besides a real search) that would have taken place with a dean? If her leadership has been that effective, why does the title matter? (Perhaps an intended slap at A & S Council?)Inquiring minds wish to know.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Just in case there was any ambiguity as to where Dr. Tinkle stands on the idea of personal interviews, I am deadset against them. We have spent the last thirty plus years attempting to take the "personal" out of the tenure process. We have tried to get all levels to approach the process on as unbiased a level as possible. That's why the dossier is the only document anyone gets to base their decision on. To assume that the president of this university is somehow endowed with super human powers to ignore any personal information in a one-on-one interview is nonsense. Just look at the deans' reactions to the idea. Everyone is scared to death to disagree with him. This emperor has no clothes and it is high time someone with more authority than Dr. Tinkle tells him so.

Please undertand it is easy to confuse me, but this time the administration has done a bangup job. Under section9.2.3.2 it says in discussing the dossier for tenure and promotion, "Thereafter , the file shall be considered sealed and all subsequent evaluators shall make their judgments based on the file as presented. All evaluating units have the right to request in writing to the member a clarification of dossier contents, but "clarification" shall not require additional documentation or materials to be submitted by the member."

There is nothing there to imply a meeting with the President. If the Pres. really wants to get to know the nontenured faculty, this is not the way to do it. This is also not the time to do it. To imply that the Pres. is somehow perfect and would never let any personal issues come between him and a decision begs the question, "Why then have the meeting at all?"

I don't really care what the administration's intentions are; we have a collective bargaining agreement that specifically lays out the process. They want to change the process. Then negotiate the change. I really enjoyed all the Collegian quotes from the deans saying what a great idea this is. Does anyone really believe a dean in this environment will disagree with the Pres.?

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Well it took several hundred phone calls but Dr. Tinkle has gathered a view of yesterday's public sighting of the dean. Her performance by most accounts was pretty so so. Here are the gathered details. First she was asked about the Confucius Institute. It seems the Chinese government wants to place "institutes" on various college campus around the U.S. Colleges. We were evidently required to apply for the pleasure of having this group on campus. Our Asian Studies faculty did most of the leg work on this. However once the Chinese said yes our faculty were pretty much cut out of any decision-making process and are now more than a touch aggravated. The Dean's response was the make-up of the governing board was three of them and four of us. They had appointed "high ranking officials" as their three members and therefore we appointed three deans and a provost as our representatives. The Dean was unable to explain exactly what "high ranking" meant here. It strikes some that it might have been a good idea to have at least one Asian Studies faculty member on the board. First, they had evidently done most of the work and two it would explain to Chinese administrators that faculty matter here. O, I'm sorry, what a silly statement to make. Also, the Institute was originally supposed to be housed in the Foreign Language Department. However, when Foreign Language asked for resources to make this happen they were told none were available. So we have an institute that the Dean thinks is very important, but an administration that wishes to do this on the cheap and without any questions from the faculty. The Dean made it very apparant that the complaining had to stop or the whole institute deal would go somewhere else. The next A & S meeting will have a panel discussion on the institute. It should be enlightening.

The Dean made a big deal out of making the chairs real managers. She pointed out that the chairs would be given real power when they showed they could handle it. She then used an unidentified department as an example saying that half the faculty had been allowed to submit sabbatical requests. That was evidently not her idea of a chair making the decisions a chair is supposed to make. Now, the problem with this example is that's all the information that was given. Therefore it is difficult to judge if the Dean has given A & S enough information or there are other circumstances. It is entirely possible that the chair abdicated his/her responsibility for this. There may also be real reasons this was done in this fashion by the department. We will wait for "the rest of the story" before passing judgment.

The Dean dropped a little bomb on the A & S crowd near the end of her presentation. Evidently the President wants to meet with the faculty who are up for promotion and tenure. She thought this was a dandy idea. She's wrong. First, it is a probable violation of the contract. There is no "meeting with the Pres." in the process. Second, if they had asked, Henry Moon tried this and stopped it because several lawsuits were threatened. I suggest that anyone wishing tenure or promotion should show up in a lab coat with a stethascope (sp?) around his/her neck.

Finally, the Dean noted there were no resources for hiring but we should look ahead and plan. It has been Dr. Tinkle's experience that there are always resources, just none for what you wish to accomplish. They are available, in this case, for the medical campus. The rest of us get to take a hike.

It was a tragic day around the department. The coffee pot died. Probably all the cigar smoke.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Dear A&S blog person: I’m not a blogger, and before this have never posted anything to the A&S Blog, so I’m not QUITE sure how this will work. I originally sent a version of this to Jim Nemeth, in response to his request for feedback. He suggested that this might be posted to the blog, and I’m very comfortable with this. I do not wish to be anonymous.

In a recent A&S blog posting, Jim Nemeth asked for input regarding the actions of the “Arts and Sciences Roundtable Initiative” implementation committee. Like Jim, I have deep concerns regarding the Roundtable Initiative itself and how the College responds to it. I was a member of the original A&S Roundtable that met a year ago. It had many good and sincere faculty members, and a few people like Tom Brady who knew nothing of undergraduate education and had no business being there. There ARE some good things in the Zemsky Report, but it was HIS report, not OUR report, and I fear that the implementation of any portion of the report is being driven by a VERY small group of people, most of them administrators or faculty members with administrative ambitions.

From what I have heard, the Extended Roundtable Retreat in early May (in the middle of final-exam week!) was a joke. A close friend and colleague attended the “Teaching Modalities” session. There was only ONE session, attended by only 6-8 people, and lasting for a couple of hours, tops. My colleague described the session as a somewhat interesting and wide-ranging discussion, but not one that really reached any definite conclusions.

Here’s my basic question: how can any group of roughly half a dozen people, meeting for only a couple of hours, come up with a plan to address teaching needs in the College?? (Side question: why isn’t the discussion about LEARNING needs, which is really what everything we do is supposed to be about?).

Our teaching efforts, most especially at the 1000/2000 level, are failing our students. UT’s year 1 à year 2 retention rate is now at 68%, a five-year low, meaning that a third of our first-year students do not return for a second year. (VP Kaye Patten-Wallace quoted a 70% retention rate at Senate a couple of weeks ago. Apparently she was rounding up – or massaging – her figures…). Eight years ago our retention number was 75%, third-best for public universities in the state of Ohio. UT’s advertising proudly trumpets big gains in freshman enrollment, but our support for first-year instruction has been cut back like everything else (except administrative salaries and alternative energy research). We should be ashamed. Instead, we’re not even talking about this.

I realize that I speak with some bitterness here. Since resigning from the directorship of the CTL I have become an unperson in the eyes of the administration. It’s certainly clear that the era of faculty-driven faculty development, which I always espoused during the years of the CTE/CTL, are over. The new vice-provost position that will replace the CTL clearly has its primary responsibility as a technology shop, aiming to increase the use of DL courses and save some money for the University. Perhaps that is even the administrative vision for the future of first-year instruction: don’t worry about learning, just make it all an on-line experience.

The following on-campus event is significant for concerned A&S students, faculty and staff:

Filmmaker Kyle Henry will be on campus Friday, November 6, 7:30, for the screening of his film University, Inc., to be shown in the Law School Auditorium along with The Subtext of a Yale Education from filmmaker Laura Dunn. Admission is free (with donations welcome). Both films explore the corporate takeover of academia. Following the screenings, Mr. Henry will lead a panel discussion of the phenomenon’s impact at UT. The UT panel members will represent its faculty, its students and (perhaps) its administration. This event, also known as “THE McCOLLEGE TOUR” is presented by the UT Department of Theatre & Film.

Two items worth noting about this event is that 1) this documentary first appeared in 1999 (concomitantly with THE McCOLLEGE TOUR); and 2) there is coincidently a book worth reading by investigative journalist Jennifer Washburn titled University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education (2005). This book is an “investigative and critical analysis on the rise of the corporate university” which grew out of Washburn’s earlier investigations focusing on “the secretive connections between public education and private industry.” Excerpts from a review of Washburn’s University, Inc. by Sharon Hudson include these observations:

“When the profit motive entered university research, universities began to behave like for-profit corporations. Chasing money—and the prestige that attracts it—has created distortions in education. Do undergraduates subsidize research? Some universities now pay “star” professors up to a half million dollars per year, while undergraduate education is “farmed out to the growing army of part-time instructors who receive no benefits and meager pay.” In 1969, 97% of professors were on tenure track; now it is 40%; America now has an army of Ph.D.s scrounging for steady jobs. Tuition has increased at three times the rate of inflation, while students have become “customers” to be gratified with lifestyle luxuries and high grades rather than outstanding education. Funding is diverted from the humanities and social sciences into the science departments that can bring in industrial dollars.In the lucrative sciences, academic collegiality is giving way to squabbles over patent rights, and the “knowledge commons” is increasingly privatized and hoarded. When professors object, universities assuage them by making them stakeholders in university business enterprises. Ironically, most universities make no profit on their patenting operations, so opening the Pandora’s Box of academic damage yields them no benefits. And in the final twist, American universities have gotten so greedy that now their private partners are complaining—and starting to take their research subsidies overseas!As Washburn points out, the profit-motivated behavior of universities is a gross violation of the public trust that universities have earned over a hundred years. Universities receive public funding and tax exemptions because they serve the public good, providing well-rounded education, unbiased research, and accessible knowledge. But if universities behave like businesses, shouldn’t they be treated like them—legally and fiscally? And, Washburn asks: “Would alumni continue to give so generously to their alma maters if they perceived them as increasingly motivated by profit rather than serving the public good? Would politicians and taxpayers continue to issue tens of billions of dollars annually to colleges and universities in the form of grants, tax exemptions, and student financial aid?”

Jim Nemeth's report is available below and I suggest you all read it and contact him. However, Dr. Tinkle has discerned by interviewing several hundred of the participants that Jim has left two very important elements go without comment. First, was the dean's Yoda like pronouncement that, "Number one can we be my children." When it was pointed out that no open-enrollment institutions are a part of the top tier, she merely brushed it off with one of her, "don't get in my way I'm on a roll" glances. The second point is that somehow because the Pres spent "$80,000 dollars on Zemsky we should all be jumping through hoops to express our graciousness. Hey folks, 80 grand is chump change. He knows it and so does the dean.

However, for today's commentary, Dr. Tinkle would like to return to the dean's comment about Newsweek's rankings. I don't know about you but Dr. Tinkle is getting more than a little irritated that somehow I'm second rate because we don't meet some ridiculous measures. To whom do we owe our efforts, Newsweek or our students? I was unaware that anyone from Newsweek was on the BOT or had students attending here. The fact is we are open-enrollment. That means we do get a lot of unprepared students. We are now going to be blamed for their being unable to do university level work. The dean acts as if there is a magic bullit to fix twelve years of collective issues and problems. Dr. Tinkle received an essay the other day. It had no complete sentences and the words it did have did not go together in any coherent fashion. We also know that the whole retention issue will fall on a specific number of departments. It is highly unlikely that a student who cannot write in complete sentences will major in Biology or Chemistry. Now what really bothers Dr. Tinkle about Newsweek and other absurd measurements is that it is more than possible to get an excellent education in all majors at the University of Toledo. We do a good job. We have excellent faculty and by giving credence to such things as Newsweek the dean does us no favors. Frankly Dr. Tinkle doesn't give two hoots in hell about the rankings. I care about the students in my class.

Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010

Daily Koan

Should the newly discovered black hole be named in honor of UT BOT?

Swamp Bubble

Do you agree or disagree that University of Toledo suffers from administrative bloat?

How do you feel about the proposed UT Degree Guarantee program? (Reposted to allow more people to vote.)

How do you feel about the proposed UT Guarantee program?

How would you grade the overall performance of the Jacobs' administration on running the University of Toledo?

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Bloggie applauds this perspicacious observer:

"The administration is in a panic mode to implement controversial and irreversible structural and curricular changes campus-wide by early February fiscal plan deadlines with only the vaguest notions of their impacts. The plan is, according to an interview with a top administrator published in the most recent Independent Collegian, to cast out many seeds and "see what grows." This experimental garden, as most senators articulated in many different ways, seems a costly recipe for disaster. Utter madness. Stay tuned."

"Dictionary of Academia" Read it While it's Hot

A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.

Comment of the Week

"This is that old tension between the corporate way of doing things and the academic way of doing things. In the corporate world, you sweep everything under the rug to make your b.s. as shiny, pleasing to the nose, and profitable as possible. In the academic world, you operate with a higher moral standard. Veritas and all that."

Comment of the Week of August 13

Re UT academic posers and hypocrites:

Have their checks calculated in units of postmodern theoretical currency and issued in photocopied legal tender notes signed by Walter Benjamin with a photo of Karl Marx and a seal stamped “In Derrida We Trust”.

Comment of the Era

Wow! Ain't that something.

-Anonymous

Comment of the Week

Mention goes to the the anonymous commentator of Feb 7, who, regarding UT President Llloyd Jacob's "Investing in Faculty" letter, stated: "If we could use the same criteria for 'investing in administrators' we could cut most of those positions."

Comments to HLC

Make sure you address your comments to HLC to the email address listed below in the "Higher Learning Commission Wants to Know" post. This may be the only chance you have to be heard. Bloggie hears that UT administration has discussed giving faculty "training" so that faculty members know how to "properly" talk to the HLC folks. How's that for stacking the deck? Does everyone get a little script to read? Make sure you practice before a mirror at being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Comment of the Week!

Definitely, the Comment of the Week award goes to Anonymous 12:14 pm, Dec 3, under the "Higher Learning Commission Needs to Know" posting by Diogenes. Pithy and pointed!

TO CONTACT BLOGGIE . . .

Bloggie is always glad to consider submissions to this blog. If you have something that you wish posted please send it to:

ascbloggie@gmail.com

Letter and Petition from Foreign Languages Faculty Member

A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of summer break, we in the Department of Foreign Languages were informed that our secretary's position was being eliminated and that while she will not lose her job (she'll be transferred), that position is not to be filled. We apparently will be expected to do our own jobs plus what we can of the secretary's. That is clearly not acceptable, and so one of the steps we in FL are taking against it is an online petition now available for any who want to (including those who for whatever reason--not a registered Ohio voter, not a US citizen, etc.--cannot sign the petition against SB5), to read and sign.

I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.

It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.

Nemeth Does it Again

Nemeth's New Article in Collegian

The Independent Collegian has run another of Professor Nemeth's fine and provocative articles in its latest edition. This one discusses the double-talk by mouthpieces for the current UT administration concerning the effects of and reasons behind so-called strategic reorganization. Make sure you get the latest version of Newspeak 5.1 if you want to decode what UT administrators are really saying.

UT Ranks 13th Nationally on Administrative Bloat

See Appendix B of the Administrative Bloat report posted on 8/28 for evidence, but UT now has a higher proportion of administrators to students than all but 12 public universities in America. President Jacobs has finally put University of Toledo in the top tier. With Strategic Organization he may be aiming for number one.

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Recent Letters from The Blade

Jacobs' arrogance is astonishing

Recently, President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo stated that bonuses were justified because his administrators "took all the risks."

As a professor at UT, I am outraged that President Jacobs claims that administrators take all of the risks. What risks do they take that the other faculty and staffs on campus do not?

Administrators are protected by state and federal employment laws and by their contracts.

When ex-President Vik Kapoor was terminated, he remained a professor with a salary near what he was paid as president.

As president emeritus, Dan Johnson retained a salary greater than his pay as president.

In the recent layoffs, exceptionally few administrators were terminated. It seems to me that low-level personnel at UT have far more risks because the greater proportion of the layoffs have come from their ranks. And they did not have continuing salaries.

President Jacobs' answer to questions on two occasions regarding relinquishing part of his bonus was to the effect that he earned his bonuses and what he did with them was his business.

Administrators do not risk their personal money in their duties: they use taxpayer money and funds collected through donations and grants to the university.

Administrators take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then add bonuses for longevity and whatever else the president decides is fitting for their contracts.

However, the lower-level personnel have much lower salaries and no such bonuses. Where is the risk?

It seems to me that these bonuses are convoluted: The lower-level personnel are taking the greater risks with no bonuses while the administrators with very rewarding jobs with little risk receive large bonuses.

Am I missing something here?

WALTER W. OLSON,

Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing

Engineering,

University of Toledo

It's the same old, same old at UT

I could hardly believe the arrogance of Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, when a reporter asked if he would be willing to forgo his bonus in light of the layoffs, raise in tuition, etc.

His comment was that he worked for it. Is that to say that the ones being laid off did not work for their pay?

All I can say is, business as usual at UT. Some things never change.

SANDY FLICK

Rose Acres Drive

UT also has checks, balances

In response to letter titled "Professors must focus on teaching," I would like to point out that the University of Toledo operates on the basis of shared governance.

This means that faculty members participate in the administration of the university.

A focus on teaching requires faculty to address administrative issues such as policies, procedures, and yes, finances, because these all affect classroom outcomes. A university with solid and equitable finances benefits everyone, including and especially the students. Just as the U.S. government is constituted to have checks and balances, so is our university government.

The UT-AAUP is one of those checks against UT administrators who most recently have displayed more concern for their own profit rather than a concern for the common good.

LINDA M. ROUILLARD,

Associate Professor

of French,

University of Toledo

Quote of the Year (so far)

The following is excerpted from the recent UT AAUP newsletter concerning the official university response to news of the bonus scandal:

. . . . Either Jacobs is misleading the media or he has misled the Board of Trustees.

President Jacobs objected to "the general tone" of the UT-AAUP Newsletter. Many persons on this campus object to the "general tone" of the Jacobs Administration. During his tenure as President, he has introduced an administrative culture of fear and intimidation. . . .

A point of logic must be raised here, with all respect to UT AAUP, the conclusions that President Jacobs has (1) misled the media and (2) the Board of Trustees are not mutually exclusive. Both would seem likely given his considerable talent at spinning "visions."

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